LED lighting to save Lancaster General Health $250K annually

By Heather StaufferDecember 20, 2013 at 9:31 AM

LED lights illuminate the 10-level employee parking garage at Lancaster General Hospital on Queen Street, one of three sites where Richards Energy Group is installing the energy-efficient lights in place of existing ones. - (Photo / Submitted)

Rapho Township-based Richards Energy Group is installing LED lights at three Lancaster General Health parking garages, which is expected to net energy and maintenance savings of more than $250,000 per year.

LED will replace the existing lighting at the 10-level employee parking garage on Queen Street in downtown Lancaster, and at the LG Health Suburban Outpatient Pavilion at 2100 Harrisburg Pike and Women & Babies Hospital at 690 Good Drive, both in East Hempfield Township. The installation is scheduled to conclude in January 2014.

John Hartman, senior director for facilities and construction management at LG Health, noted that older light fixtures like the ones being replaced typically contain small amounts of mercury in their bulbs.

"That needs to be handled properly, so our project scope includes recycling of all the old bulbs and electronic components as well as much of the non-hazardous fixture housings," he said.

"LED lighting technology has sufficiently improved in terms of quality of light and energy efficiency, as well as come down in cost enough to make economic sense while allowing Lancaster General Health to achieve their goals through a project like this," said Andrew Fritz, senior lighting coordinator at Richards Energy Group.

"We were able to source U.S. made fixtures for this project," said Fritz. "Most of what we're putting in the parking garage is made in New Jersey, and the fixtures at the SOP Campus are made in North Carolina and Wisconsin."